Travel notes

Travel notes 

Dear Reader: 

A few days ago, I was at one of Thailand's myriad border passes with Burma. Reason: an invitation from a friend who's in the business sector. 

The following are extracts from the notes I had taken during a two-ho

Was Yaw really a druglord? 

"Sort of," said my friend, referring to the press release by Rangoon on 26 October of the capture of a Nyein Kyaw and Yaw Phar Li on 8 October and 13 October respectively, an event hailed by Thailand's drug czar, General Thammark Issarngkul na Ayutthaya, as a marker of improved relations, between the two countries. "That is, if you don't count those bigger, richer and with strong armed forces to back them." 

The two were charged by Thailand with direct involvement in the trafficking of 116 kg of heroin and 7.8 million pills of methamphetamines that were seized in the Andaman Sea on 7 January. 

"Nyein Kyaw is nothing but a follower," he said. "It's Lao Hsan (Yaw Pharli's alias) who was the ringleader. He worked independently although of Kokang origin and was therefore considered a sitting duck for the military authorities that was in sore need of some concrete actions to improve their damaged reputation". 

According to the friend, Lao Hsan also owned a ceramic factory. In addition, he was the principal patron for one of the leaders of a ceasefire group. 

Purge of the generals

The talks inevitably led to the recent out-of-the-blue ouster of the two generals. I asked him, "So Mahathir (Prime Minister, Malaysia) denies having anything to do with the generals' dismissals. What have you heard?" 

He told me, according to insiders, Malaysia was not mentioned, but Singapore was. 

"During their meeting in Brunei, Singapore complained of U Paing (the popular name for Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings) monopolizing almost everything in Burma and produced evidence of a $45 million deposit at a Singapore bank in Gen Win Myint's account." 

More disturbing, he said, was the discovery that the ex-Secretary Three had channelled part of the Chinese arms imported from Burma to the Indian rebels. "He must have been on friendly relations with them when he was serving as Commander of the Western Region," the friend explained. "Of course, in those days, relations with India were quite sour." 

As for Pinlong Htaketar construction firm that suddenly went bankrupt soon after Win Myint's plunge, he laughed and said, "That was an unfortunate jackpot. The company had bought land from Gen Win Myint and was interrogated after Win Myint's custody. As soon as the news broke out, all the shareholders panicked and demanded their money back. One of them told me he had already lost a good deal when Gen Kyaw Ba was dismissed and his assets freezed by Rangoon in 1997 and couldn't afford to take more risk." 

Many Rangoonians were amazed when they heard General Win Myint and Tin Hla were dismissed for, out of all available pretexts, corruption, he said. "If they really mean business with corruption, then it means they're ready to hand over power to the opposition, because there won't be anyone of them left to rule the country." 

In fact, he said, there were some who were saying the two were only fall guys for Gen Maung Aye and his sidekick, Saya Kyaung (U Aung Ko Win)'s mishandling of the economy.